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Embracing Mystery and the Fight Against Certainty

Editor’s note: this is part one in a series of blog posts by the Rev. Chaz Snider. Subsequent parts to this series, “Seeking the Moravian Way,” will be published over the next few weeks on the Spotlight Blog and on Chaz’s blog. These additional parts will publish on Mondays, outside of the normal rotation. The normal rotation publishes Saturday and typically does not feature the same writer two weeks in a row.

If you want the rest of this series (and other future posts from Chaz’s blog) emailed to you directly, you can sign up for that here.

If you identify as a Moravian, I am sure you are familiar with the inquisitive look that you often get when you tell people that. It is more than likely going to be followed by the question, “What is a Moravian?” If they happen to be familiar with the denomination, then usually the response you get is “Oh you are the cookie people!” I cannot deny the fact that Moravians hold claim to some delicious treats.

The question “what is a Moravian?” tends to have deeper resonance when you ask it in the context of the spiritual landscape of today’s world. Church participation continues to drop and more people call themselves “spiritual but not religious” than ever before. This shift in American religion can cause us in the church to ask some healthy questions. Perhaps the best question we can ask ourselves is the same one that is most often asked of us: “What is a Moravian?”

There is not one theological issue that separates us Moravians from other Christians. What I come back with is a unique approach to faith and spirituality.

When I turn back to our history in an attempt to answer that question, I don’t come back with a doctrinal answer. There is not one theological issue that separates us Moravians from other Christians. What I come back with is a unique approach to faith and spirituality. When I look at our uniqueness it is not the “what” of faith that is different for us, but rather the “how” of our faith. Or to put it another way, how we live our faith is just as important to us as the content of our faith.

One of the key aspects of this Moravian way is an embrace of mystery and being ok with uncertainty. The writings of many early Moravians speak of the mystery of faith. They are not bound to the certainty of dogmatic and religious formulations but are ok with the mystery of God. These early Moravians speak of the Trinity as a family, Father God, Brother Christ, and Mother Spirit. Instead of debating the metaphysics of the incarnation they spoke of entering the wounds of Christ as a way of God inhabiting all of the human experience.

We Moravians, like many Christians, have not always embraced these mystical elements of our heritage and for many years we have downplayed that aspect of our tradition. For much of the 20th century, faith was equated with believing something with a high degree of certainty. In defining faith this way, it became an intellectual exercise as opposed to something that required our being in meaningful community with others. Instead of focusing on how we lived in the world, faith became only believing a certain checklist of things.

When many early Moravians described their experience of faith, they did not seem particularly concerned about checking off a list of beliefs. Instead, they seemed much more concerned with how the mysterious Christ shaped the way they lived in the world.

[Zinzendorf] was interested in promoting a particular way of living out faith. A way that embraced mystery, made a meaningful impact on the world, and was centered on the person of Christ.

So why is this important? Christians in our country today are facing a crisis of identity. We are living in a more post-Christian society each day. Churches are shrinking at a rapid pace and people seem less interested in religion. And those things scare a lot of people, especially people in churches.

Here is the really interesting thing: even though people may be abandoning religion, they’re not abandoning spirituality. Pew Research tells us that 44% of the spiritual-but-not-religious pray every day and 92% believe God exists. Perhaps there is still a spiritual need to be filled, but many religious communities aren’t meeting that need.

The Moravian way of faith might speak to this spiritual hunger. If we look back into our own history we will find that Zinzendorf, one of the most influential Moravian leaders, didn’t have any interest in starting a new denomination or religion. He was interested in promoting a particular way of living out faith. A way that embraced mystery, made a meaningful impact on the world and was centered on the person of Christ. So maybe we should give thought to how this Moravian way might find expression in a nonreligious way.

Zinzendorf and the early Moravians were less concerned with the certainty of faith and much more interested in the mystery of faith. We live in a world today where we divide ourselves by our certainties and absolutes. It can be certainty on politics, certainty on religion, or certainty on how good or bad the new Star Wars movie was. Whatever it may be, we divide and categorize each other because we have failed to cultivate mystery, uncertainty, and unknowing in our lives.

Maybe if we turn back to our Moravian way of faith, we can focus less on preserving our institutions and our certainties, and instead embrace the mysteries of our faith in Christ.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo by Andrew David Cox / BCM

The Rev. Chaz Snider is the pastor at Ardmore Moravian Church (AMC) in Winston-Salem, NC. Chaz was born and raised in Charlotte, NC. He is a lifelong Moravian. Chaz’s focus is helping people who crave a relationship with God but aren’t sure where to start. He has a passion for spreading the love of Jesus to everyone and is looking forward to seeing how AMC can impact our city. Chaz’s wife Michaleh is a Physical Education teacher and director of children, youth, and family ministry. They have three kids: Chris, Abby, and Sara.

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July 6 is a special day of remembrance in the Moravian Church. On this date in 1415, a Catholic church council in the city of Constance executed one of the great Christian reformers. Millions of Christians worldwide, including Moravians, view John Hus as a martyr to the gospel and a saint, even though he was officially condemned as a heretic. For many people in Bohemia, Moravia, and elsewhere in Europe, the execution of Hus proved beyond doubt that radical reform was needed for the medieval Catholic Church, which had grown corrupt in doctrine and practice. A century after Hus’s death, Martin Luther could boldly proclaim that he, too, was a Hussite.

Contrary to popular belief, Hus was not the founder of the Moravian Church; however, his witness and courageous commitment to reform inspired Gregory the Patriarch to establish a new church forty years after Hus’s death. If Gregory was the father of the Moravian Church, then Hus was like a grandfather of the church. Hus tried to reform the Catholic Church of his day through his preaching, teaching, and writing. He challenged the corruption of the church and called for priests and pastors to live as spiritual role models for their flocks. He aggressively rejected the sale of indulgences and opposed other ways in which the institutional church sold spiritual goods. Most of all, he urged the church to use the Holy Scriptures as the ultimate guide and authority for doctrine and practice. He untiringly preached that mere belief in doctrine is not sufficient for salvation. Faith must be completed in love, by which he meant love for one’s neighbor. When his preaching frightened those who held power in his day, he was arrested, tried, and convicted. He committed his soul to Christ and bravely faced the executioners’ flames, trusting that his soul would return to the Lord he loved. Hus believed truth would prevail even if he were killed.

The Moravian Church was founded decades after the death of Hus as a new Christian community dedicated to his principles. The Moravian Brethren dedicated their lives to Christ and tried to live according to the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. They turned away from the allure of wealth and power and embraced lives of Christian discipleship and self-discipline. Through the centuries, Moravians have preached Hus’s message that faith must be completed in love and they have established congregations dedicated to the simple proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ and God’s unlimited love for all people. The courageous witness of John Hus, who gave his life so that the truth would prevail, has inspired Moravians for hundreds of years. Six hundred years after his death, Moravians proclaim Hus as a martyr to the truth, a faithful witness of the gospel, and a shining example that truth cannot be destroyed by violence.

Special thanks to the Rev. Dr. Craig D. Atwood,Charles D. Couch Associate Professor of Moravian Theology and Ministry at Moravian Theological Seminary, and Director of the Center for Moravian Studies, for providing this essay on the legacy of John Hus.

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